OOo contributors make a dash for LibreOffice

More than 30 OpenOffice.org contributors are preparing to break free of Oracle’s code base in favour of LibreOffice.

Last month the OOo project revealed a massive rejig that ended Oracle’s dominant control of the code, with the group of developers declaring themselves independent of Larry Ellison’s company.

The OOo project was dubbed The Document Foundation, and the open office suite was granted the name of LibreOffice.

Over the past weekend, German OOo contributors carried out a mass departure to the LibreOffice fork, in protest at Oracle’s unwillingness to participate in the new project, which Ellison’s firm was humiliatingly asked to rejoin, following the divorce.

“Oracle's official response to the announcement of The Document Foundation was clear – Oracle will continue OpenOffice.org as usual," wrote Jacqueline Rahemipour in a letter about the exodus of contributors on Sunday.

"The result is now indeed the lately postulated conflict of interest for those community members who are in charge of or representing project, but to whom it is not enough ‘to continue working as we always did’.

“Although it has been stressed several times that there will be collaboration on a technical level, and changes are possible – there is no indication from Oracle to change it's mind on the question of the project organisation and management.

“For those who want to achieve such a change, but see no realistic opportunity within the current project and are therefore involved in the TDF, unfortunately this results in an ‘either / or’ question.”